The factor function is a little bit silly.



On Monday 07 April 2008 22:11, J.C. Pizarro wrote:

>> Maybe you just have removed expand(...)?
>
> No, no, i didn't remove expand(...)!

I guess you need to do it :-)

> but if i put sqrt2 instead of sqrt then the symbolic computation is
> "different":
>
> (%i10) factor(expand((sqrt2(x+a)+b)^10));
>                                                10
> (%o10)                       (sqrt2(x + a) + b)
>
> It demonstrates that there is some strange symbolic computation.

It's because Maxima doesn't know anything about the "sqrt2" and how it should 
be expanded. It's not more "strange" than something like

  factor(expand((foobarbaz(x+a)+b)^10)) => (foobarbaz(x+a)+b)^10

> I'm still waiting the answer of
>
> (%i11) factor(expand((x-y-z)^1000));
>
> [...]
>
> If i remove the expression "-z" then it solved in few seconds:
>
> (%i12) factor(expand((x-y)^1000));

There's no difference in Maxima approach, it's just expansion of (a+b)^n takes 
less time than expansion of (a+b+c)^n.

Why do you putting expand(...) inside factor(...)?

-- 
Alexey Beshenov <al at beshenov.ru>
http://beshenov.ru/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.math.utexas.edu/pipermail/maxima/attachments/20080408/22d051cd/attachment.pgp